1. Use of film & creative media to liberate young refugee and asylum seeking people from disempowering identities
Fri Sept 16th 2016, AFT conference
Gillian Hughes
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Child and Family Refugee Team
Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust
Our team & who we see – proportion are refugee adolescents without parents

2. Summary
Young asylum seekers and disempowering identities – impact on wellbeing
How to respond as practitioners: Use of film and creative media
Drawing on….
Narrative approaches
Liberation practices
Community psychology

3. Stories told about refugees and asylum seekers and by them
Foucault (1980) – social discourses shape our relationships with each other, and the rules governing social behaviour (legal system, govt. policy).
Negative discourses about refugees become ‘internalised’ (White & Epston,1990)
Not welcoming: Brexit campaign, Attitudes in the media about asylum seekers shape voters wishes: ‘dole scroungers’ and ‘illegal immigrants’, which influences govt. policy. Needs of the labour market dictate the messages govt. are giving out.

4. Context creates negative definitions of identity:
Structure of mental health services
Individual approach within mental health services
Re-telling traumatic stories, ‘victim’ identity
Legal and political system
Right to be in UK being questioned & not being believed in court
Public discourses
‘bogus asylum seekers’ ‘dole scroungers’
Brexit campaign, the refugee ‘problem’
People often arrive at our service suicidal – negative discourses internalised & identity crisis

5. Personal stories contribute to emotional distress and feed negative identity definitions
Witnessing trauma in home country
Loss of family and home, worries about those left behind, survivor guilt
Traumatic journeys to the UK
Settling in a new country without the support of extended family, loss of cultural anchors
What is going on? Will talk about what is going on psychologically for these young people, how related to identity.
How we might helpfully respond – as people offering support within the health, social care and legal systems.
Talk about a particular approach our team have used

6. Psychological well being & functioning
‘Negative identity definitions’
Stories lived & told
IDENTITY
Psychological well being & functioning
Huge emphasis on trauma – more complex

7. How do we respond to support emotional wellbeing?
Use of film and creative media
Preferred identity definitions: constructing and ‘re-counting’ their own story
Creating a document/record to share
Opportunities for honouring and appreciation – communities of support
Potential for influencing others, systems – social action

8. Guiding Principles Narrative approaches Liberation practices
Community psychology

9. Narrative approaches
Create a ‘safe place to stand’ before addressing trauma directly.
Put people in touch with hopes, aspirations, values for living.
Emphasise ‘subjugated narratives’ (White, 2005), stories of survival
Audience for preferred stories - ‘spreading the news’, (Freedman & Combs, 1996)
Narrative approach – help people know how to go on
Subjugated narratives – journeys to UK, extraordinary stories of survival
Community resilience – eg. ‘barking like a dog’ (Pashtun)
Spreading the news eg. court reports

10. How to respond? Liberation Practices
Witnessing: name, and highlight injustice, (Martín-Baró, 1996) - place distress in context to avoid ‘internalising discourses’
‘Community resilience’ and ‘cultural virtues’ – how do people practice resilience and how developed in context of history & culture (Afuape & Hughes, 2016)
Coming alongside people, holding our expertise lightly (Hughes & Bisimwa, 2016)
Context: Social, political and cultural

11. How to respond? Community Psychology
Bring people together, create connections
Social action psychotherapy (Holland, 1992)
Re-position people as having something to contribute.

12. Examples of practice
Writing
Pottery
Film (Richmond Park project)

13. Writing
As therapy, and to inspire other young people at Tavistock. (Maya)
Akala workshop
Letters to Calais migrant camp (Faridun)

14. Plamedi’s rap
I have defeated them all, but have not won the war. Still struggle to survive, families struggle for their lives. Tryna get out of jail, my life’s been put on bail. Tryna get my message across, but I’m locked in a box. No job, no money, so I can’t help Mummy. Soon come I’ll be making big p’s so I can help my real g’s. Once they notice me the government will see poverty is pain and pain is not a game.

15. Zubair’s rap I think our country sinks beneath the yoke
Power and money, it divides up our folk
There are powerful winners and poor losers
In a better world, we would all be choosers
Who is to say people can’t change?
People can rise

17. Pots of Life

19. Richmond Park Young people create their own story Shared experience
Fun (picnic, football)
A document to share with others – ‘spreading the news’ (Freedman & Combs, 1996)
Hand held cameras, prompts

20. Film made by the young people

21. What the day enabled ‘Richmond Park was fantastic, fantastic….’
Gave the young people a voice
Environment that connected them with home
Fun, created sense of community
Re-positioned them as having something to contribute
‘I got to interview my friends. We talked about how to help people who have just arrived in the UK. It was good.’ ‘It was a natural place because when we used to live back in Afghanistan, we lived in the countryside… It reminded me of what we had. And we talked about how life was there and when we came here, how life is here.’
‘We changed a lot. I feel much better because I haven’t been for a long time outside of London. When I’m in London, I just feel bored, tired. This was much better. You get some new fresh air because when I came back I was saying ok, I’m fresh now, I can do whatever I want.’
‘I also liked taking pictures - a lot of good memories from there. It was nice.’
‘Everyone had a good time. When we came back, we went to one of my friend’s house, and we stayed there and talked about the things that we did. And we had pictures from there, on our mobile phones – a lot of pictures, a lot of memories. We all talked about it afterwards.’

22. References
Afuape, T. & Hughes, G. (2016) (Eds.), Liberation Practices: Towards Emotional Wellbeing Through Dialogue. London: Routledge. (Chapters: Hughes & Bismwa; Clayton & Hughes)
Denborough, D. (2008). Collective Narrative Practice: Responding to individuals, groups, and communities who have experienced trauma. Dulwich Centre Publications, Adelaide.
Holland, S. (1992) ‘From social abuse to social action’, in Ussher, J. and Nicholson, P. (eds), Gender Issues in Clinical Psychology, London, Routledge, 68–77

23. References cont.
Hughes, G (2014) Finding a voice through ‘The Tree of Life’: A strength-based approach to mental health for refugee children and families in schools. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol 19(1) 139–153.
Hughes, G. & Kaur, P. (2014) ‘Young men from refugee communities score goals for their future using the Team of Life’. Context, 134,
Martίn-Barό, Ignacio. (1996). Writing for a Liberation Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.